Bathurst pledges NZ mine will be safe

Emerging coalminer
Bathurst Resources
assured shareholders the company’s soon-to-developed operations in New Zealand would not suffer the same problems as
Pike River Coal
’s namesake mine, where 29 miners lost their lives after an explosion earlier this month.

Bathurst chairman Craig Munro said at the company’s annual meeting in Sydney on Monday that because the Buller mine on the South Island’s west coast would be open-cut, it did not face the same issues as Pike River’s underground operation.

Bathurst plans to utilise nearby rail and port infrastructure to produce an initial one million tonnes a year from Buller by the fourth quarter of 2011.

“Bathurst’s operations are and will be completely different [than Pike River] in configuration, product and mining method," Mr Munro told shareholders. “Bathurst’s Buller project will be open cut, not underground, and as such we do not face the same issues or circumstances."

“That said, it is important for us to carry the memories of this tragic event at Pike River with us to continually remind us that anything other than 100 per cent commitment to the care of our people is simply not an option."

A Royal Commission will investigate the cause of the blast at Pike River, which is also on the South Island’s west coast, 50 kilometres north of Greymouth.

Mr Munro said the Buller coalfield was one of New Zealand’s most significant fields, accounting for about half of the country’s coking coal.

Bathurst’s permits largely surround Solid Energy’s open cut coalmine, which produces about 2 million tonnes a year. Most of the coal is exported to steel mills in India, China, Japan, South Africa and Brazil. Bathurst expects to produce similar high quality coal from similar seams.

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“Global interest in this project has identified significant demand for our product and we have a number of potential customers keen to take coal from our first production which is expected late next year," Mr Munro said.

“We expect to be able to announce, in the very near future, offtake agreements and offtake finance agreements with major corporations."

The Perth-based company dual-listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange last week after finalising its $35 million purchase of Galilee Energy’s NZ coal assets.

The acquisition will deliver Bathurst immediate positive cashflow from the Takitimu and Cascade coalmines, which together produce about 200,000 tonnes a year. It will also consolidate Bathurst’s Buller project with Galilee’s Whareatea West exploration permit and the small, high grade Cascade mine, which sits on the Denniston plateau north of Westport. The Takitimu coalmine is further south in NZ’s Ohai/Nightcaps region.